Books to Movies: Damon Runyon and Can a Movie Capture the Narrator?

Can a movie capture the narrator?

Damon Runyon's tales are quite reliant on the narrator. "Madame La Gimp," specifically, is funny precisely because of the deadpan narrator.

The short story has been made into several movies, two by Frank Capra: Lady for a Day and Pocketful of Miracles. Pocketful of Miracles is way too long, so much so the joke gets lost (a bunch of gangsters pretend to be high society folks to fool Spanish nobility who come from a small town and don't care).

But Pocketful has Peter Falk as Joy Boy, the head gangster's factotum, who watches the  wild pretense with insouciance while delivering deadpan reactions. In fact, early on, Joy Boy has a voice-over which dryly establishes the premise.

Unfortunately for the movie, the voice-over rapidly disappears. Voice-overs are their own problem area since explaining is the opposite of showing (and a movie is all about showing). In this case, I think the lack is regrettable. Every time Peter Falk shows up on the screen, he is hilarious, even if he is just standing there and rolling his eyes. He has a Charles Grodin ability to evoke the audience's sympathy as the observer. His facial expressions and tone match Runyon's written narrator, and Falk was nominated for the role of supporting actor.

But again, unfortunately, the story and story's voice is sacrificed to...I'm not sure what. Capra reputedly wasn't as directly involved in Pocketful as in his other films, precisely because of all the big names. The lack of a strong story arc run by a single strong main protagonist (with the narrator dragging us back to the strong story arc) shows.  

The nurse is in the movie--she plays a

a very minor role

My overall thought regarding the question is that the scriptwriter(s) and director have to value the narrator if the movie is going to have the same tone (and the scriptwriter of Pocketful is very confused). I've always consider Murder in Mesopotamia one of Christie's best Poirots, precisely because the nurse narrator has such a strong character and voice. The reader sees everything and everyone, including Poirot, through her eyes. 

The Poirot movie moves her to the sidelines, possibly to highlight Suchet as Poirot. The plot is mostly kept. But is the plot what makes the story so fantastic? 

Hmmm--maybe. But without the narrator, it's another Poirot movie--with the wonderful Suchet--not that story with the idiosyncratic narrator.